FOREIGN MINERS' TAX.

74

407

The reduction gave fresh courage to the Mexicans, who with the Mongols constituted almost the exclusive prey of the collector; but it brought little relief from Anglo-Saxon persecution, with the attendant seizures of tempting claims and maltreatment, exclusion from camps and districts and not infrequent bloody encounters when objections were made, a show of armed resistance affording an excuse for even more liberal minded men to regard the safety of the community as endangered and to support the crusaders. The French, with Latin blood and sympathies, suffered so severely from the persecution that their immigration was much reduced, while large numbers sought relief by departing, notably with the disastrous expeditions of Raousset-Boulbon.75 Native Californians found so little protection in their citizenship from similar outrages,

Calaveras $12,500, Shasta $3,500, Mariposa $7,500, Sierra $3,000, Yuba $6,500, Plumas $4,750, Ainador $3,850, Stanislaus $400, San Joaquin $500, Tulare $500, Merced $1,000, Fresno $2,000. Total $125,300.

74 Idlers would occasionally raise a 'stake' by a fraudulent double levy of tax, after tearing up the exhibited receipt. For notable outrages, see Cal. Courier, Feb. 18, 1851; Alta Cal., Apr. 30, June 18, 1851; Sac. Transcript, Feb. 28, May 15, 1851, with mention of three encounters, half a score of killed, and consequent exodus of Mexicans. The miners at Rough and Ready in May 1852 prohibited foreigners from mining in the district. S. F. Herald, May 21, 1852. In Mariposa both French and Mexicans were driven off from a series of valuable claims, but the French consul succeeded in reinstating some of the expelled. Alla Cal., May 12-14, June 12-13, July 1, 5, 11, 15-16, 22, 1852. A convention met in Tuolumne on Sept. 18th to consider the question. Id., Sept. 20, 28, Oct. 18; Calaveras Chronicle, Sept. 1852; Echo Pac., July, Sept. 1852; Sonora Herald, Sept., Oct. 1856. At Bidwell's Bar and other places it was resolved not to register claims for foreigners. In 1853 Calaveras county was marked by wide-spread expulsions, with attendant outrages that roused a cry of indignation throughout Mexico. Sonorense, Mar. 25, Apr. 8, 15, 1853, etc.; Rivera, Hist. Jul., iv. 371; Alta Cal., Apr. 20, Aug. 21, Oct. 2, Nov. 1, 1853; March 18, 1854; S. F. Herald, Jan. 29, 1853; S. F. Whig, Jan. 29, 1853, with allusions to squatter outrages. Cronica, Dec. 20, 1854, and Voz Sonora, Oct. 5, 1855, etc., continued to deplore the Hispano persecution. Sac. Union, Apr. 9, May 7, 28, July 28, Aug. 11, 14, Sept. 5, 1855, has allusions to Mexican robber depredations and consequent ill feeling in Amador, Calaveras, and adjoining counties. In the summer of 1856 Mexicans were largely expelled from Amador. Id., June 20, Dec. 16, 1856; S. F. Bulletin, May 1, July 2, Dec. 18, 1856; Hayes' Angeles, xviii. 101-3; and so at Greenwood valley and in Mariposa. In Shasta the sheriff had to bring fire-arms to bear on a party intent upon expelling Chinese. Marysville Appeal, Aug. 24, 1867, brings up the fate of the rifles.

75 As related in the chapter on filibustering. Lambertie, Voy., 231-3, and Auger, Cal., 105-13, instance several marked outrages. They acknowledge the lack of unity and perseverance among French parties. See Alta Cal., Apr. 28, 1851, July 1853, etc., for outrages, and preceding notes.

76

from land spoliation and other injustice, which had moreover reduced a large proportion to poverty, that plans for emigrating to Mexico were widely entertained." In the mines the ill-will turned greatly in a new direction with the growing influx of the yet more obnoxious Chinese, upon whom the wrath of America gradually concentrated.78

76 Officials of their race were treated with contempt, from which many sought to save themselves by taking sides with their oppressors. Pico, Doc., i. 191, 507-9. Incautious arrangements with lawyers, gambling, and extravagant display brought about the ruin of a large proportion of wealthy families. Roach's Stat., MS., 5-6; Alta Cal., Aug. 19, 1851, Aug. 5, 1853.

The insecurity in Mexico from internal wars, Indian raids, and arbitrary officials alone prevented a large exodus in response to the invitations tendered by states as well as private land-holders. For colony schemes and measures, see Vallejo, Doc., xxxvi. 189, 213; Hist. Doc. Cal., i. 520; iii. 371-82; Stc. Union, Feb. 12, 1855; Savage, Coll., MS., iii. 188; Hist. North Mex. States and Tex., ii., this series, especially in direction of Sonora, for which a special colonization society was formed.

A man whose early life in California is a mosaic of such experiences as are indicated in the above chapter, is Hon. Peter Dean of San Francisco. Born in England Dec. 25, 1828, he came to the U. S. in 1829 with his father's family, his ancestors having been land-owners from the Norman period. Educated in New England, he came to California June 13, 1849, on the second trip of the Oregon, being one of 12 forming the Gaspee mining co. After some experimental mining, the company established a ferry across the Tuolumne river, and afterwards dug a canal to furnish water to miners, neither of which made their fortunes owing to accidents. In the fall of 1851 Dean returned to San Francisco, and in company with Samuel Jackson went to Oregon in a schooner, which was loaded with lumber and live stock for Portland. After getting to sea, a southeast storm disabled the vessel, which was driven up the coast, but finally found its way into Dean's inlet on the mainland east of Queen Charlotte island, where they were detained 43 days, the crew suffering many hardships, after which the vessel was worked back to Puget sound, and Dean went by land to the Columbia river, where he took passage on the steamship Columbia for San Francisco. After mining, trading in cattle in Idaho, and various undertakings in many places, he settled in San Francisco in 1869. Throughout the war period he was an ardent unionist. In 1871 he was elected director of the Pioneer society. In 1873 he was elected school director; and also waschosen vicepresident of the Pioneer society. In 1875 and 1876 he was acting president, and in 1877 was elected president. His politics in 1875 was independent, he being a member of the Dolly Varden convention. In 1877 he was elected to the state senate, and defended the school system of San Francisco against attacks from its enemies. He was in the state convention of the republican party in 1878. He opposed the unlimited coinage of silver, and urged upon congress the policy of governmental control of the transcontinental railways; endeavored to divide the burden of the water-tax between the rate-payer and property-owner; opposed Chinese immigration, and labored for the purity of the ballot, and the registration of voters. Mr Dean has also been prominent in commercial affairs. He was elected president to close up the business of the Masonic bank and Merchant's Exchange bank; and is (1888) president of the Sierra lumber company and holds other official positions; besides attending to an extensive private business.

CHAPTER XVI.

MINING METHODS.

1848-1856.

PRIMITIVE MINING MACHINERY-IMPROVED MEANS FOR POOR DIGGINGSCALIFORNIA INVENTIONS-TOM, SLUICE, FLUMING-HYDRAULIC MINING -DITCHES, SHAFTS, AND TUNNELS-QUARTZ MINING THE FIRST MILLS -EXCITEMENT, FAILURE, AND REVIVAL-IMPROVED MACHINERY--CoOPERATION-YIELD-AVERAGE GAINS-COST OF GOLD-EVIL AND BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MINING.

RICH Surface deposits and few participants did not tend to advance mining methods; but as the easily worked alluvia became scarcer, and the number of miners increased, attention was turned to less remunerative auriferous strata, to be found, not alone in the shallow river bar and gulch diggings which so far had been merely skimmed, but extending through benches above the level of the streams and ravine hollows, and through flats and gravel hills, the deposits of ancient rivers. With these were connected rich beds difficult of access, as in the bottom of rivers, or at a great depth beneath layers of soil of little or no value. All of which required a combination of hands and capital, for removing barren surface, sinking shafts, and driving tunnels, and for machinery with which to perform this wasteful work in the most expeditious manner, and to better extract a compensating amount of gold.

Numbers of experiments were introduced by thoughtful immigrants, but nearly all devised without practical knowledge, and utterly useless. Many excellent ideas

Instance the cumbrous and complicated sieves, alembics, washers, and digesters mentioned in Burnett's Rec., MS., ii. 42-5; Placer Times, May 26,

were, however, obtained from men conversant with the methods of other countries, and these suggestions assisted in unfolding one method after another. In 1850 the long-tom began to supplant the cradle, of which it formed practically an extension, with a capacity fivefold and upward greater.2 Complementary to it was the quicksilver machine for saving fine gold.3 Both were replaced within two or three years by the more effective and permanent sluice, an extension of 1849; Swan's Trip, 48-9; Cal. Pioneers, no. 49; Simpson's Gold Mines, 7-8; Auger, Cal., 8-9; Sac. Bee, Jan, 16, 1874; Overland, xiii. 274-85; which drew ridicule upon the owners, and were cast aside often without trial. The expressman Gregory brought out diving suits for which he was offered 700 per cent profit before trial, and Degroot's diving bell raised hopes in many breasts; but they proved worthless.

2 An inclined, stationary wooden trough or box from 10 to 30 feet in length, 14 ft in width at the upper end, and widening at the lower end, where perforated sheets of iron are let into the bottom, under which is placed a shallow flat riffle-box, four or five feet long, with cross-bars to catch the running gold. Such bars are sometimes nailed also across the bottom of the upper box to assist in catching the gold. Dirt is shovelled into the upper end by one or more men, and upon it plays a continuous stream brought in hose from the dam above. Other men below assist in dissolving the dirt by stirring it with shovels or forks, and in removing gravel. The puddling box obtained favor where water was scanty and the clay tough. It was a box about 6 feet square wherein the dirt could be stirred in the same water for some time, with a rake, and frequently with animal power. By removing a plug a few inches from the bottom, the slimy matter could be run off and fresh water introduced. The box has been more widely adopted in Australia. Both of these machines existed in cruder forms in Georgia and elsewhere. See Austed's Gold Seeker, 85–7; Zerrenorer, Aulietung, 51, for similar apparatus. Crosby, Stat., MS., 21, refers to toms in May 1849, apparently.

3 Which the simple cross-bars failed to catch. It was a long rocker with perforated iron top throughout, above the riffle-box, above each of whose bars some quicksilver was placed to absorb the gold, which was regained by squeezing the mercury through buckskin and retorting the amalgam. The cradle has been described in the previous chapter on earliest mining methods. The quicksilver machine was introduced from the eastern states in 1849, 3–400 lbs in weight, and costing $1,000-$1,200, as described in Placer Times, Oct. 20, 1849; but by 1850 they were reduced in weight and price from three to six fold. The introduction and improvement are ascribed to C. Bruce, who resided in Mariposa in 1873. Marysville Appeal, Jan. 16, 1873; Sac. Transcript, May 29, 1850; Placer Times, Apr. 13, 1850.

Either may be several hundred feet long. When of board it is made in sections for ready fitting and removal. Small sluices require from half a dozen to a score of men. Large ones demand preliminary hydraulic operations for bringing dirt and a little river of water, which obviate much manual labor. The wear of timber for the boxes, the bottom of which has often to be renewed every 20 days, led to the adoption of the under-current sluice, wherein iron bars and double channels separate the coarse débris from the finer, and allows a more gentle and prolonged current to save more gold. The costly timber is wholly or partly saved by ditch sluices, such as the rock sluice, wherein the bottom is formed of lenticular rolled pebbles or cobblestones overlapping each other in regular order. One form of this is the tail sluice, generally laid in the bed of a creek with larger stones, for washing the

5

the tom, and either constructed of boards, or as a simple inclined ditch, with rocks instead of wooden riffles for retaining the gold. Operations on river bars soon led to explorations of the bed itself, to which end the stream was turned into artificial channels to lay bare the bottom. The cost and risk of deviating the river course caused the introduction of dredgers with fair success. Along the northern coasts of California the auriferous bluffs, worn away by the surf, deposit very fine gold in the beach sand, which is carried away on mule-back and washed at the nearest stream.

To the sluice and its coördinates are due the immense increase in the production of gold during the early mining period; for without their aid the industry

escaped tailings of other sluices. Tunnels are sometimes cut to obtain an outlet for washing, whence the term sluice tunnels. The ground sluice is used for rapid descents, and as it can cut its own channels it is often applied for opening railroad cuts, etc. Booming is to discharge an entire reservoir upon a mass of dirt. The grade of the ordinary sluice ranges from 2 to 20 inches for every 12 feet. The upper part may preferably be steeper to promote the disintegration of débris; the lower part must be gentler in descent to prevent the fine gold from being washed away. The rock sluice not only saves more gold than board sluices, but it offers less facility for robbers, and requires less frequent cleanings up. Quicksilver is used in proportion to fineness of the gold, frequently in the cheaper connection of amalgamated copper plates. Nevada county claims the credit of first using the tom, grizzly (in connection with under-current sluices), and sluice. Nevada Co. Directory, 1867, 61-2. Pliny, in his Nat. History, Del Mar, Prec. Metals, 286, Austed, Gold Seeker and Mining in Pac., 115, 129-33, show that sluices and hydraulic washing were known to Romans, Brazilians, and others. Others point to board sluices in N. Carolina in 1840. W. Elwell constructed one at Nevada City in the spring of 1850; but some incline to credit Mr Eddy. Mr Eddy is credited with the accidental discovery of the sluice method in California, by using a trough to carry the dirt and water from his claim, across that of a quarrelsome neighbor, to the rocker below. The cleats or bars in the trough caught the gold, leaving none for his rocker to wash. Blake, Mining Machinery, 9, instances a tail sluice 5,500 feet long at Dutch Flat, which cost $55,000, and took 4 years to construct. The best account of sluices is given in Bowie's Hydraulic Mining, 218 et seq.

The water is turned by wing dams into flumes, which are usually cheaper than ditches, owing to the rocky character of the banks. The flume current supplies water for sluicing and power to pump the bed. Bowlders are lifted by derricks. At times the stream is confined to one half of the bed while the other is worked. The absence of heavy rains between May and December permit such operations. Placer Times, July 20, 1849, refers to several fluming enterprises on the American forks thus early; also Dean's Stat., MS., 4-5.

"The steam dredger Phoenix, of the Yuba Dredging Co., in Jan. 1851, was highly commended for its success. The buckets discharged the dirt into huge rocker riffles. Pac. News, Oct. 19, 1850; Sac. Transcript, Sept. 30, 1850; Feb. 1, 14, 1851; S. F. Picayune, Nov. 27, 1850; Moore, Pioneer, MS., 11-12, refers to success and failure in dredging; also Comstock, Vig., MS., 36.